Monday, January 22, 2007

Small Fry

Today Small Fry had a job interview in Solana Beach for a teaching position at a private high school--English, history, French, Spanish, & Chinese. Small Fry has never taught Chinese before.

After the interview, Small Fry road the bus home. Two women on the bus spoke to each other about all the times they'd been to the emergency room, and which emergency rooms they liked best, and how sometimes you just have to take a little extra medication to get high, and how sometimes they ride the bus just to have something to do.

One woman kept asking the bus driver "do you think we'll get to Carlsbad in time to catch the 4:30 bus?" and after a while he stopped answering. The man sitting behind Small Fry said, "that woman's trouble," as if he and Small Fry had some kind of shared understanding.

Between Palomar Airport Road and Cannon road there was a three car accident, so the bus had to be rerouted. Small Fry went up to the front of the bus and said to the driver, "Let me off!" He looked at her and said nothing.

Another woman on the bus, wearing a pink sweat suit and carrying a foot long black flashlight, glared at Small Fry. "He CAN'T let you off the bus," she said. "He can't let you off the bus with your shirt cut SO LOW!" She gestured at Small Fry with the flashlight. Small Fry did not think her shirt was cut low--she had just been at a job interview, and was dressed quite modestly.

Small Fry poked the bus driver with her index finger and said, "Let me off now, sir, I don't want to stay on this bus." Her voice was probably tired and small. At this point, the bus was in the middle of a major traffic jam on Palomar airport road, and the woman trying to make her 4:30 bus connection was even more upset.

"What did you want?" The bus driver finally said to Small Fry.

Small Fry looked at him and blinked. "Let me off," she said.

A man in a beat up suit came up to the front of the bus and stood behind Small Fry. He said, "Driver, let me off this bus, I have to piss really bad!" The driver opened the door and they both got out. The man smiled at me and said "have a good afternoon, babe!" Then he pulled down his pants.

Small Fry walked the mile and a half back home. Then she and her faithful parrot, Pudding, ate leftover chickpea stew.

Help Protect Bees

The work of pollinators (such as bees, butterflies, and humming birds) ensures full harvests of many agricultural crops and contributes to healthy plants everywhere...As landscapes are converted from wild to managed lands, many pollinators’ habitats may be destroyed or fragmented. More than half of the food we eat depends on bees and other animals for pollination. Most of the fruit and vegetable producing plants we rely on need honeybee pollination to thrive--which is why the disappearance of honeybees known as Colony Collapse Disorder is a critical environmental issue. To learn more about research for Colony Collapse Disorder, visit Pollinator Partnership.